Our monthly roundup of everything protein, food, agriculture, and science.
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May 16, 2023
By taking the tools of tissue engineering and adapting them to work on a scale as large as agriculture, cell-cultured meat could change the world. But first, we need political will to fund foundational academic research in this field.
March 1, 2022
Gene-recombinant biotechnologies aim to produce key animal proteins at a fraction of the cost of conventional animal husbandry. The implications for research, medicine, food systems, and the climate could be huge. But can these emergent technologies scale quickly enough to spur system-wide change?
September 21, 2021
Every now and again a young person comes along whose intellect and wisdom seem to defy their age. Over the past year, we’ve had the privilege of working closely with one such individual. If you haven’t yet heard of her, you probably soon will. Meet cellular agriculture’s rising star, Avery Parkinson.
September 14, 2021
Much attention has been given to the innovators producing plant- and cell-based alternatives to traditionally animal-based foods, but less recognized are the ones developing serums and mixes in which those proteins can grow. Some of the most creative are using ancient and simple components—including algae and mycelia—to make the foundations for animal protein alternatives.
September 1, 2021
Brave New Meat podcast host Doug Grant talks with Michael Aucoin, CEO of alternative protein investment firm Eat Beyond Global Holdings. As a publicly traded stock on the Canadian Securities Exchange, Eat Beyond (CSE: EATS) is currently one of the only options available offering retail investors early exposure to emerging alt protein startups and technologies.
August 11, 2021
“Many other industries use a linear model — take, make, use, and dispose — which is clearly unsustainable. Once a supply chain is established,” says New Harvest Research Fellow Dawne Skinner, “it is essentially locked in because it is too costly to reconfigure. Given that the cell-based industry is nascent, we are in the stage of initiating a new supply chain. My research aims to figure out how we can start this supply chain off on the right foot.”
August 10, 2021
Though opportunity in this space is abundant, government regulators have not yet caught up to the pace of new product innovation. Given the significant implications that new regulations and guidance can have for the alternative protein industry, it is important to ensure that the end results are inclusive and comprehensive.
June 16, 2021
Though perhaps not thought of as immediately as startup magnets like Silicon Valley, Singapore, or Israel, it would be a mistake to overlook the innovation culture of Canada — the outlook for cellular agriculture there is highly optimistic.
April 13, 2021
What distinguishes a muscle cell from a fat cell or a skin cell? The answer is “gene expression.” Although genome sequencing and analysis has been employed vastly in the study of disease and pharmaceuticals, there has been little application in the emerging field of cellular agriculture.
March 24, 2021
How do you feed 10 billion people? The university that helped turn California’s wine industry from afterthought into economic juggernaut has set its sights on cultivated meat.
February 24, 2021
Over the next two years, many cultivated meat startups will bring products to market leading to acquisitions and IPOs as the industry matures. Looking toward this future, it’s worth considering how valuable these companies could be.
December 29, 2020
Cultivated ground meat has the potential to unravel the business model of the beef industry.
August 6, 2020
Cultured insect meat products might look more like normal burgers and steaks than you’d expect. But what is entomoculture, why might we need it, how does it work, and who’s leading the research? Prodigious young science writer and New Harvest summer intern, Avery Parkinson, answers all your questions.
June 23, 2020
On December 29, 2017, just two days before New Year’s Eve, Josh Tetrick, the CEO of JUST, and his golden retriever, Elie, boarded a nonstop KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight in San Francisco that would take him halfway around the world to Amsterdam, where he hoped to make the first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat. This article is an excerpt from BILLION DOLLAR BURGER: Inside Big Tech’s Race for the Future of Food by Chase Purdy, with permission from Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2020 by Chase Purdy.
June 3, 2020
While most grocery stores now stock a seemingly endless variety of dairy alternatives derived from nuts, seeds, or grains, what most consumers don’t yet know is that a new kind of real milk—created not by cows but scientists—will likely be joining them on the shelves very soon.